18/04/2003: That extra push

I’m not normally known for getting too worked up about something. I tend to keep reasonably calm and not let too many things get to me. But sometimes this changes. Especially recently. I think that I must have too much time on my hands.

Since creating “Pen Spinning 3k” more and more people at college have come up to me saying, “Your AC right? Could you help me with this spin?” I would always agree, after all, we need more pen spinners right? We would arrange a time and I would help them with whatever I could. I enjoy it too. But a few months ago something happened that triggered me to, “get rather infuriated.” Let me tell you what happened.

Someone from college spoke to me in a lesson and asked me for help with the sonic. “Sure” I said. He showed me his spin and I gave him some advice on what he was doing wrong. He then asked me a few other pen spinning related questions that he wasn’t too clear about. After this he walked away and carried on with his business. I saw him again the next week and he asked me again about the same trick. “I still need a little help,” he said. I agreed thinking that he would nearly be able to do it now. When he asked me the same questions as before I found it strange because I had already answered them. “How much have you been practicing?” I asked him.
“I haven’t.” He answered.
“Sorry?” I wasn’t too sure why he was still asking me questions if he hadn’t even been doing what I told him.
“I can’t be bothered.” He replied.
He just walked away and carried on with whatever he was doing. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t too upset at this, I just found it a little bizarre that’s all. Someone who really wants to learn about pen spinning and wants to learn new tricks, “Can’t be bothered” to put the effort in??? I tried not to let it get to me too much. The next week I walked into the same lesson and saw him. I didn’t say anything; I just wanted to see if he had been practicing. Nothing happened in the lesson; we both just carried on with our work. It wasn’t until the end of the lesson that he came up to me.
“Hey” He said.
“Hi” I smiled, waiting to see what he would say. “Have you been practicing?”
“No, don’t see the point”
“Why not?”
Just as he said this, a football hit his back and interrupted our conversation. I haven’t seen him since.
As I was catching the bus home that evening I thought about what he had said. “Ok” I thought. He wants to learn and get better but “doesn’t see the point” in practicing to improve. I sure hope that he reads this article one day.

So what separates him from people that really do succeed? It’s that extra push, the extra bit of effort, and the determination to improve. Every one of the sports stars, actors and TV presenters that you modelled yourself on when you were younger had this extra element. It’s what made them succeed. Would they ever say, “I can’t be bothered to practice”? This brings me to something that KAM (Fernando Kuo) wrote in a recent interview that I did with him:.
“The internet can provide you with all the tools you need, but it is up to you to build something with them.”
That sums it up really doesn’t it?

AC